Dubai Wants To Use Drones To Deliver Government Documents

Dubai is the latest, and possibly the largest, entity to propose an alternative use of drones other than, you know, war. According to officials in the United Arab Emirates, drones could soon be put to use as modern-day carrier pigeons, used to deliver government documents to citizens in a timelier and more dependable method than current mechanisms.

“What these things are best suited for is delivery of small, light value things that are time sensitive, like medicines, identification documents, vital papers and things of that nature,” Noah Raford, an advisor to the UAE's Prime Minister, told the National.

The program could go into effect as early as next year and would integrate fingerprints and retina-scanning as a security measure. The proposition comes as part of a government-sponsored $1 million contest to drum up inventive ideas for drones to be used in a pub†lic service capacity.